Download or read book United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department Practices Violate the Law and Undermine Community Trust Especially Among African Americans written by U. S. Government and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-03-05 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice opened its investigation of the Ferguson Police Department ("FPD") on September 4, 2014. This investigation has revealed a pattern or practice of unlawful conduct within the Ferguson Police Department that violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and federal statutory law. Ferguson's law enforcement practices are shaped by the City's focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs. This emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional character of Ferguson's police department, contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing, and has also shaped its municipal court, leading to procedures that raise due process concerns and inflict unnecessary harm on members of the Ferguson community. Further, Ferguson's police and municipal court practices both reflect and exacerbate existing racial bias, including racial stereotypes. Ferguson's own data establish clear racial disparities that adversely impact African Americans. The evidence shows that discriminatory intent is part of the reason for these disparities. Over time, Ferguson's police and municipal court practices have sown deep mistrust between parts of the community and the police department, undermining law enforcement legitimacy among African Americans in particular. I. REPORT SUMMARY * II. BACKGROUND * III. FERGUSON LAW ENFORCEMENT EFFORTS ARE FOCUSED ON GENERATING REVENUE * IV. FERGUSON LAW ENFORCEMENT PRACTICES VIOLATE THE LAW AND UNDERMINE COMMUNITY TRUST, ESPECIALLY AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS * A. Ferguson's Police Practices * 1. FPD Engages in a Pattern of Unconstitutional Stops and Arrests in Violation of the Fourth Amendment * 2. FPD Engages in a Pattern of First Amendment Violations * 3. FPD Engages in a Pattern of Excessive Force in Violation of the Fourth Amendment * B. Ferguson's Municipal Court Practices * 1. Court Practices Impose Substantial and Unnecessary Barriers to the Challenge or Resolution of Municipal Code Violations * 2. The Court Imposes Unduly Harsh Penalties for Missed Payments or Appearances * C. Ferguson Law Enforcement Practices Disproportionately Harm Ferguson's African-American Residents and Are Driven in Part by Racial Bias * 1. Ferguson's Law Enforcement Actions Impose a Disparate Impact on African Americans that Violates Federal Law * 2. Ferguson's Law Enforcement Practices Are Motivated in Part by Discriminatory Intent in Violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and Other Federal Laws * D. Ferguson Law Enforcement Practices Erode Community Trust, Especially Among Ferguson's African-American Residents, and Make Policing Less Effective, More Difficult, and Less Safe * 1. Ferguson's Unlawful Police and Court Practices Have Led to Distrust and Resentment Among Many in Ferguson * 2. FPD's Exercise of Discretion, Even When Lawful, Often Undermines Community Trust and Public Safety * 3. FPD's Failure to Respond to Complaints of Officer Misconduct Further Erodes Community Trust * 4. FPD's Lack of Community Engagement Increases the Likelihood of Discriminatory Policing and Damages Public Trust * 5. Ferguson's Lack of a Diverse Police Force Further Undermines Community Trust * V. CHANGES NECESSARY TO REMEDY FERGUSON'S UNLAWFUL LAW ENFORCEMENT PRACTICES AND REPAIR COMMUNITY TRUST * VI. CONCLUSION * FOOTNOTES

Download or read book The Ferguson Report written by United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2015-06-23 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed African American high school senior, was shot by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. For months afterward, protestors took to the streets demanding justice, testifying to the racist and exploitative police department and court system, and connecting the shooting of Brown with the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and other young black men at the hands of police across the country. In the wake of these protests, the Department of Justice launched a six-month investigation, resulting in a report that Colorlines characterizes as "so caustic it reads like an Onion article" and laying bare what the Huffington Post calls "a totalizing police regime beyond any of Kafka's ghastliest nightmares." Among the report's findings are that the Ferguson Police Department "Engages in a Pattern of Unconstitutional Stops and Arrests in Violation of the Fourth Amendment," "Detain[s] People Without Reasonable Suspicion and Arrest[s] People Without Probable Cause," "Engages in a Pattern of First Amendment Violations," "Engages in a Pattern of Excessive Force," and "Erode[s] Community Trust, Especially Among Ferguson's African-American Residents." Contextualized here in a substantial introduction by renowned legal scholar and former NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund president Theodore M. Shaw, The Ferguson Report is a sad, sobering, and important document, providing a snapshot of American law enforcement at the start of the twenty-first century, with resonance far beyond one small town in Missouri.

Download or read book Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department written by U.s. Department of Justice and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-02-04 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice opened its investigation of the Ferguson Police Department ("FPD") on September 4, 2014. This investigation has revealed a pattern or practice of unlawful conduct within the Ferguson Police Department that violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and federal statutory law. Over the course of the investigation, we interviewed City officials, including City Manager John Shaw, Mayor James Knowles, Chief of Police Thomas Jackson, Municipal Judge Ronald Brockmeyer, the Municipal Court Clerk, Ferguson's Finance Director, half of FPD's sworn officers, and others. We spent, collectively, approximately 100 person-days onsite in Ferguson. We participated in ride-alongs with on-duty officers, reviewed over 35,000 pages of police records as well as thousands of emails and other electronic materials provided by the police department. Enlisting the assistance of statistical experts, we analyzed FPD's data on stops, searches, citations, and arrests, as well as data collected by the municipal court. We observed four separate sessions of Ferguson Municipal Court, interviewing dozens of people charged with local offenses, and we reviewed third-party studies regarding municipal court practices in Ferguson and St. Louis County more broadly. As in all of our investigations, we sought to engage the local community, conducting hundreds of in-person and telephone interviews of individuals who reside in Ferguson or who have had interactions with the police department. We contacted ten neighborhood associations and met with each group that responded to us, as well as several other community groups and advocacy organizations. Throughout the investigation, we relied on two police chiefs who accompanied us to Ferguson and who themselves interviewed City and police officials, spoke with community members, and reviewed FPD policies and incident reports.

Download or read book Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department written by United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-03-06 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the course of the investigation, we interviewed City officials, including City Manager John Shaw, Mayor James Knowles, Chief of Police Thomas Jackson, Municipal Judge Ronald Brockmeyer, the Municipal Court Clerk, Ferguson's Finance Director, half of FPD's sworn officers, and others. We spent, collectively, approximately 100 person-days onsite in Ferguson. We participated in ride-alongs with on-duty officers, reviewed over 35,000 pages of police records as well as thousands of emails and other electronic materials provided by the police department. Enlisting the assistance of statistical experts, we analyzed FPD's data on stops, searches, citations, and arrests, as well as data collected by the municipal court. We observed four separate sessions of Ferguson Municipal Court, interviewing dozens of people charged with local offenses, and we reviewed third-party studies regarding municipal court practices in Ferguson and St. Louis County more broadly. As in all of our investigations, we sought to engage the local community, conducting hundreds of in-person and telephone interviews of individuals who reside in Ferguson or who have had interactions with the police department. We contacted ten neighborhood associations and met with each group that responded to us, as well as several other community groups and advocacy organizations. Throughout the investigation, we relied on two police chiefs who accompanied us to Ferguson and who themselves interviewed City and police officials, spoke with community members, and reviewed FPD policies and incident reports. We thank the City officials and the rank-and-file officers who have cooperated with this investigation and provided us with insights into the operation of the police department, including the municipal court. Notwithstanding our findings about Ferguson's approach to law enforcement and the policing culture it creates, we found many Ferguson police officers and other City employees to be dedicated public servants striving each day to perform their duties lawfully and with respect for all members of the Ferguson community. The importance of their often-selfless work cannot be overstated. We are also grateful to the many members of the Ferguson community who have met with us to share their experiences. It became clear during our many conversations with Ferguson residents from throughout the City that many residents, black and white, genuinely embrace Ferguson's diversity and want to reemerge from the events of recent months a truly inclusive, united community. This Report is intended to strengthen those efforts by recognizing the harms caused by Ferguson's law enforcement practices so that those harms can be better understood and overcome. Ferguson's law enforcement practices are shaped by the City's focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs. This emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional character of Ferguson's police department, contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing, and has also shaped its municipal court, leading to procedures that raise due process concerns and inflict unnecessary harm on members of the Ferguson community. Further, Ferguson's police and municipal court practices both reflect and exacerbate existing racial bias, including racial stereotypes. Ferguson's own data establish clear racial disparities that adversely impact African Americans. The evidence shows that discriminatory intent is part of the reason for these disparities. Over time, Ferguson's police and municipal court practices have sown deep mistrust between parts of the community and the police department, undermining law enforcement legitimacy among African Americans in particular.

Download or read book The Ferguson Report written by United States Department of Justice and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-06-27 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After Michael Brown, an unarmed young black man, was shot by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, rage followed. For weeks and months, citizens from all across the country descended on Ferguson to protest the killing, and demand justice. Similar incidents on Staten Island and in Baltimore focused these protests even more intensely. The US Department of Justice conducted an extensive investigation into Brown's shooting, and issued this report. The DOJ found extensive, longstanding, and institutionally accepted racism in the Ferguson police department. The report's details are chilling and, describe a department literally plotting against its most vulnerable citizens. Among the findings: Ferguson police stopped, frisked, detailed, and arrested African American citizens at far higher rates than white citizens, incarcerated far more African Americans, and created an atmosphere of intimidation approaching that of a fascist state. For anyone who wants to understand what happened in Michael Brown's case; who wants to understand why protestors took to the streets afterward; why many of their fellow citizens believe we live in two countries, separate and not equal; and why, in the 21st century, it is the police whom we must watch carefully and monitor for injustice, this scathing report will provide the answers.

Download or read book Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department written by Department of Justice and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-03-04 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shooting of Michael Brown occurred on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, 28, a white Ferguson police officer. The disputed circumstances of the shooting and the resultant protests and civil unrest received considerable attention. On September 2014, the Justice Department initiated a civil rights investigation to examine concerns about the department's practices, as well as reviewing its internal investigations of use of force during the preceding four years. This report is the result of that investigation. Proceeds from every sale will be donated to programs that directly support Wounded Warriors. Check out all of our books at www.woundedwarriorpublications.com

Download or read book Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department written by United States United States Department of Justice and published by . This book was released on 2015-03-04 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Death of Michael Brown The Fatal Shot Which Lit Up the Nationwide Riots Protests written by United States Department of Justice and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2017-03-06 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shooting of Michael Brown occurred on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, a northern suburb of St. Louis. Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer, after robbing a convenience store. In response to the shooting the U.S. Department of Justice conducted two investigations into the circumstances of Brown's murder and the policing practices of the Ferguson Police Department. This e-book presents all the findings and established facts of these investigations; including the misconduct against the citizens by the Ferguson Police, discrimination against African-Americans and conclusions regarding the shooting incident.

Download or read book Federal Reports on Police Killings written by U.S. Department of Justice and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2017-06-27 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After a series of incidents in which police officers in Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, killed four unarmed African Americans--Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, and Michael Brown--resulting in widespread civic unrest and violent protests, the Department of Justice launched investigations into each incident, including in-depth probes into the police departments behind them. This is the complete and unexpurgated text of their findings.

Download or read book Ferguson written by United States. Department of Justice and published by . This book was released on 2015-06-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After Michael Brown, an unarmed young black man, was shot by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, rage followed. For weeks and months, citizens from all across the country descended on Ferguson to protest the killing, and demand justice. The United States Department of Justice conducted an extensive investigation into Brown's shooting, and issued this report. The DOJ found extensive, longstanding, and institutionally accepted racism in the Ferguson police department. The report's details are chilling and, describe a department literally plotting against its most vulnerable citizens. Among the findings: Ferguson police stopped, frisked, detailed, and arrested African American citizens at far higher rates than white citizens, incarcerated far more African Americans, and created an atmosphere of intimidation approaching that of a fascist state. For anyone who wants to understand what happened in Michael Brown's case; who wants to understand why protestors took to the streets afterward; why many of their fellow citizens believe we live in two countries, separate and not equal; and why, in the 21st century, it is the police whom we must watch carefully and monitor for injustice, this scathing report will provide the answers.This book contains the full and complete DOJ report.

Download or read book Department of Justice Report Regarding the Criminal Investigation Into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown by Ferguson Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson written by U.s. Department of Justice and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-02-04 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At approximately noon on Saturday, August 9, 2014, Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department ("FPD") shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old. The Criminal Section of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") subsequently opened a criminal investigation into whether the shooting violated federal law. The Department has determined that the evidence does not support charging a violation of federal law. This memorandum details the Department's investigation, findings, and conclusions. Part I provides an introduction and overview. Part II summarizes the federal investigation and the evidence uncovered during the course of the investigation, and discusses the applicable federal criminal civil rights law and standards of federal prosecution. Part III provides a more in-depth summary of the evidence. Finally, Part IV provides a detailed legal analysis of the evidence and explains why the evidence does not support an indictment of Darren Wilson.

Download or read book The Shooting Death of Michael Brown and the Ferguson Police Department written by Keith H. Gonzales and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At approximately noon on Saturday, August 9, 2014, Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department (FPD) shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old. The Criminal Section of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (collectively, "The Department") subsequently opened a criminal investigation into whether the shooting violated federal law. The Department has determined that the evidence does not support charging a violation of federal law. This book details the Department's investigation, findings, and conclusions.

Download or read book Death of Michael Brown written by United States Department of Justice and published by Madison & Adams Press. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shooting of Michael Brown occurred on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, a northern suburb of St. Louis. Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer, after robbing a convenience store. In response to the shooting the U.S. Department of Justice conducted two investigations into the circumstances of Brown's murder and the policing practices of the Ferguson Police Department. This book presents all the findings and established facts of these investigations; including the misconduct against the citizens by the Ferguson Police, discrimination against African-Americans and conclusions regarding the shooting incident.

Download or read book Charleston Syllabus written by Chad Williams and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2016-05-01 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On June 17, 2015, a white supremacist entered Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and sat with some of its parishioners during a Wednesday night Bible study session. An hour later, he began expressing his hatred for African Americans, and soon after, he shot nine church members dead, the church’s pastor and South Carolina state senator, Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, among them. The ensuing manhunt for the shooter and investigation of his motives revealed his beliefs in white supremacy and reopened debates about racial conflict, southern identity,systemic racism, civil rights, and the African American church as an institution. In the aftermath of the massacre, Professors Chad Williams, Kidada Williams, and Keisha N. Blain sought a way to put the murder—and the subsequent debates about it in the media—in the context of America’s tumultuous history of race relations and racial violence on a global scale. They created the Charleston Syllabus on June 19, starting it as a hashtag on Twitter linking to scholarly works on the myriad of issues related to the murder. The syllabus’s popularity exploded and is already being used as a key resource in discussions of the event. Charleston Syllabus is a reader—a collection of new essays and columns published in the wake of the massacre, along with selected excerpts from key existing scholarly books and general-interest articles. The collection draws from a variety of disciplines—history, sociology, urban studies, law, critical race theory—and includes a selected and annotated bibliography for further reading, drawing from such texts as the Confederate constitution, South Carolina’s secession declaration, songs, poetry, slave narratives, and literacy texts. As timely as it is necessary, the book will be a valuable resource for understanding the roots of American systemic racism, white privilege, the uses and abuses of the Confederate flag and its ideals, the black church as a foundation for civil rights activity and state violence against such activity, and critical whiteness studies.

Download or read book Proactive Policing written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2018-03-23 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proactive policing, as a strategic approach used by police agencies to prevent crime, is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It developed from a crisis in confidence in policing that began to emerge in the 1960s because of social unrest, rising crime rates, and growing skepticism regarding the effectiveness of standard approaches to policing. In response, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, innovative police practices and policies that took a more proactive approach began to develop. This report uses the term "proactive policing" to refer to all policing strategies that have as one of their goals the prevention or reduction of crime and disorder and that are not reactive in terms of focusing primarily on uncovering ongoing crime or on investigating or responding to crimes once they have occurred. Proactive policing is distinguished from the everyday decisions of police officers to be proactive in specific situations and instead refers to a strategic decision by police agencies to use proactive police responses in a programmatic way to reduce crime. Today, proactive policing strategies are used widely in the United States. They are not isolated programs used by a select group of agencies but rather a set of ideas that have spread across the landscape of policing. Proactive Policing reviews the evidence and discusses the data and methodological gaps on: (1) the effects of different forms of proactive policing on crime; (2) whether they are applied in a discriminatory manner; (3) whether they are being used in a legal fashion; and (4) community reaction. This report offers a comprehensive evaluation of proactive policing that includes not only its crime prevention impacts but also its broader implications for justice and U.S. communities.

Download or read book Department of Justice Report Regarding the Criminal Investigation Into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown by Ferguson Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson Summary of the Evidence Use of Force written by U. S. Government and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-03-05 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At approximately noon on Saturday, August 9, 2014, Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department ("FPD") shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old. The Criminal Section of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") (collectively, "The Department") subsequently opened a criminal investigation into whether the shooting violated federal law. The Department has determined that the evidence does not support charging a violation of federal law. This memorandum details the Department's investigation, findings, and conclusions. Part I provides an introduction and overview. Part II summarizes the federal investigation and the evidence uncovered during the course of the investigation, and discusses the applicable federal criminal civil rights law and standards of federal prosecution. Part III provides a more in-depth summary of the evidence. Finally, Part IV provides a detailed legal analysis of the evidence and explains why the evidence does not support an indictment of Darren Wilson.Based on this investigation, the Department has concluded that Darren Wilson's actions do not constitute prosecutable violations under the applicable federal criminal civil rights statute, 18 U.S.C. § 242, which prohibits uses of deadly force that are "objectively unreasonable," as defined by the United States Supreme Court. The evidence, when viewed as a whole, does not support the conclusion that Wilson's uses of deadly force were "objectively unreasonable" under the Supreme Court's definition. Accordingly, under the governing federal law and relevant standards set forth in the USAM, it is not appropriate to present this matter to a federal grand jury for indictment, and it should therefore be closed without prosecution.I. Introduction * II. Summary of the Evidence, Investigation, and Applicable Law * A. Summary of the Evidence * B. Initial Law Enforcement Investigation * C. Legal Summary * 1. The Law Governing Uses of Deadly Force by a Law Enforcement Officer * i. The Shootings Were Not Objectively Unreasonable Uses of Force Under 18 U.S.C. § 242 * ii. Wilson Did Not Willfully Violate Brown's Constitutional Right to Be Free from Unreasonable Force * III. Summary of the Evidence * A. Darren Wilson's Account * B. Physical and Forensic Evidence * 1. Crime Scene * 2. Autopsy Findings * 3. DNA Analysis * 4. Dispatch Recordings * 5. Ballistics * i. Wilson's Firearm and Projectiles Fired * ii. Projectile Recovered from SUV * iii. Gunshot Residue on Brown's Shirt * 6. Fingerprints * 7. Audio Recording of Shots Fired * 8. Wilson's Medical Records * 9. Brown's Toxicology * 10. Ferguson Market Surveillance Video * C. Witness Accounts * 1. Witnesses Materially Consistent with Prior Statements, Physical Evidence, and Other Witnesses and Therefore, Give Credible Accounts * i. Witnesses Materially Consistent with Prior Statements, Physical Evidence, and Other Witnesses Who Corroborate That Wilson Acted in Self-Defense * ii. Witnesses Consistent with Prior Statements, Physical Evidence, and Other Witnesses Who Inculpate Wilson * 2. Witnesses Who Neither Inculpate Nor Fully Corroborate Wilson * 3. Witnesses Whose Accounts Do Not Support a Prosecution Due to Materially Inconsistent Prior Statements, or Inconsistencies With the Physical and Forensic Evidence * IV. Legal Analysis * A. Legal Standard * B. Uses of Force * 1. Shooting at the SUV * 2. Wilson's Subsequent Pursuit of Brown and Shots Allegedly Fired as Brown was Moving Away * 3. Shots Fired After Brown Turned to Face Wilson * C. Willfulness * VI. Conclusion

Download or read book What Ferguson Can Teach Us written by Ronald Eric Matthews and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2016-06-22 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To the dismay of many, gun violence against youth – be it at school or on the streets – is a common theme in American culture. As the occurrences of these gruesome shootings become more frequent, Americans grow even more anesthetized to the events. Even President Obama has indicated that shootings do not affect him as they once did; “Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine” (Bailey 2015, 1). As Americans become less shocked by school shootings and death, they become numb to violence in other aspects of society – like shootings of black males and shootings of law enforcement officers. Yet, nothing has galvanized the country as it relates to police tactics, black deaths, race relations, and criminal justice techniques more than the death of Michael Brown. The fatal shooting of Brown by Officer Darren Wilson, a 28-year old white policeman, occurred on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St Louis. The circumstances of the shooting, which continue to be debated and discussed, resulted in an escalation of existing tensions between the citizens of Ferguson and the institution charged with protecting them and the country as a whole. This book provides a more comprehensive examination of the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Wilson and the events that followed. It uncovers the lingering questions surrounding the events of August 9, 2014, and will serve to generate an on-going dialogue about the role race and class play in the criminal justice system, the importance of recognizing the impact of public policy initiatives and laws at the local level when measured through the lens of criminal justice and judicial equity, and the role the media plays in shaping the public agenda. This book does this by exploring the relationship between established historical cultural norms that have propagated classism and racial division and the public policy initiatives that allow the continuation of these problems.